Fox has released a new Fringe trailer for the upcoming second half of season 4.

The trailer is in the form of rapid-fire clips from the season, some we’ve seen before, and some we haven’t. It looks like we’re going to be experiencing a lot more of the other universe going forward, which is fine, because this was something sorely lacking in the first half of the season. IMHO, I think it’s time we caught up with Walternate and Fauxlivia.

Interestingly enough, Fox is at least attempting to give the impression that the pace will pick up in the new episodes.

The season so far has been a bit slow, mostly focusing on Olivia and Lincoln, with a lot of character development for everyone. It feels like the beginning of a new show, full of the need to expose the audience slowly to the characters and places. They’re not explaining the basic premises, but it’s clear the writers feel we need a strong introduction to this new world - which leaves me to believe we’ll inevitably be stuck here. This is Peter’s new reality, and he will never get back ‘home’.

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Agreed. Although I enjoyed all the episodes so far, they need to really pick up the action and get the story moving in some direction other than stagnant! I just hope they don't blow it. I'm good for 1 more season if done correctly.My biggest complaint is that dangling story lines will never be resolved and the most annoying one is "THE FIRST PEOPLE". It could still be redeemed but I never bought that Walter made up the the whole thing, sent the machine back in time and buried it all over the country, wrote the book and put it in several languages. That misdirection was just stupid and made absolutely no sense!

that could be, oh i don't know, because it is a new show? so save your criticisms and go back and view season 4 with fresh eyes, forgetting everything you knew before. look at what Fringe did. it made you a new viewer(again). amazing isn't it? GOD I LOVE THIS SHOW

@ Matthew: I actually loved the First People bit. I thought it was pretty darn awesome. If you check out the Fringe comics that Joshua Jackson wrote, they fill in those gaps.

If they send the machine back in time through the Central Park wormhole, it can either be scattered by itself or someone could do it. All they have to do since they have the original texts is copy them to new bindings and send them back in time as well.

In other words, Lincoln is the new lead, olivia and Lincoln are the new it couple and peter is a worthless plot device who is only put back on the show just to give the perfect male lead aka Lincoln relationship advice.

Amrit,I can just ditto what fringeobsessed and Old Darth said. I've not been disappointed yet. I'm excited to find out how THEIR (Pinkner and Wyman's) story unfolds. I've said it before too, if you don't like the script I challenge you to write a better one. Give it another chance.

I'm afraid you're completely right, Amrit, and it's not the first time I've expressed something similar in this place. I've never watched Lost, so I can't really say if there is precedent to this level of fail on previous Abrams's shows, but the way they threw 3 seasons of storytelling and character development out of the window with NuFrigne is more than enough to make me wary of any of his other projects.

Of course they are going to fail Peter, they always have and they always will. There is a point, where letting the producers deceive and mislead you doesn't work anymore. At first, I was hopeful to see what they said they had up their sleeves for the character again and again, but it in the end it was a whole lot of hot air, that never went beyond the interviews. A waste of time... and they proved they just couldn't care less about the character. So disappointing!

I don't quit, because even though I don't expect they'll make up for neglecting Peter/Joshua Jackson and his fans so disgracefully, there are a few characters I still care about besides Peter and although there is no way the show can be emotionally satisfying seeing how NuFringe is here to stay, maybe, just maybe, they can create some sense of urgency and excitement to sustain the rest of the season.

trent,how do you know that NuFringe (as you call it) is here to stay. Have you seen the new episodes already, did you write the script? I guess this is the problem I have. Things are being judged before they even air.

'but the way they threw 3 seasons of storytelling and character development out of the window with NuFrigne is more than enough to make me wary of any of his other projects.'

Unsubstantiated. The show is at chapter 8 of a 22 chapter story. Those 3 seasons are not gone for good.

PS, JJ has minimal involvement with the show.

PPS - Lost was a fantastic show and ended beautifully. Was it perfect? No. But what is? Lost gave 6 seasons of fantastic character journeys. Some of the most heart felt, heart breaking, and funny moments in TV history.

Check out Mo Ryan and Ryan McGee's TalkingTV podcast - http://tinyurl.com/854d74f - they did with Todd VanDerWerff. In it Todd makes excellent points about how viewers should approach watching serialized TV.

"...and are not answering the questions raised and are sidestepping the issues. Right now the observers desperately need to be explored as does Peter. I do not mean 1 episode, I mean 10-15 episodes of answering questions."

Amrit,We will not get 10-15 episodes of answering questions, but I expect a few will be answered between Jan. 13th and the Season 4 Finale.

I want to commend you on buying your vehicles to support sponsors who support outstanding TV.All Fringe fans should do this to the degree that they can, because the sponsors DO pay attention when they get verbal feedback regarding this.

It's funny that every time a person doesn't have their rose-colored glasses on about fringe, they tell people to stop watching. Look, these writers wrote this storyline of Peter not existing which after 7 episodes, is merely just a way to get Olivia and Lincoln together. Don't you think something is REALLY wrong when you have one of your leads gone for 4 EPISODES STRAIGHT, then bring them back, then spend more time showing Olivia and Lincoln and their annoying relationship than showing how PETER is coping with coming back? They spent around 8 darn episodes centering around Olivia, her coming back and her dealing with fauxlivia and Peter but Peter comes back and they spend NO TIME ON HIS CHARACTER? DO YOU THINK THAT'S FAIR????????? Then in that waste of an episode wallflower, Peter spent the ENTIRE EPISODE giving Lincoln some stupid glasses just so that nerd will go on that stupid date with Olivia.

Do you really believe that people will be HAPPY knowing that a very important character is being sidelined for a NERD? A NERD THAT WAS JUST INTRODUCED LAST YEAR AND IS BEING TREATED LIKE HE IS THE DARN LEAD?

So, until Fringe stops catering to Olivia and Lincoln fans and start catering to the Peter fans, the mythology fans, the fans who has been here since the very beginning, people will not be complaining.

Cortexifan, I'm saying NuFringe is here to stay, because the newest teaser for the next 2 episodes shows that the action is still taking place in the new timeline and because of some comments by the producers. Maybe the old timeline will be back eventually, but I don't think it's going to happen any time soon.

It's ironic that you are telling other people to quit, but you take offense at the suggestion.

BTW, are you saying that you are NOT a Peter fan? It appears from your other comments that you are, which would mean that you told yourself to quit...

Amrit said...

I think maybe you should back off of fans who are not singing the show praises when it is failing.

"Not singing the praises of the show" is a far cry from declaring the show a failure and that the writers "don't care".

Your dire predictions are based on opinions and false assumptions.

"They are being dishonest and are not answering the questions raised and are sidestepping the issues. Right now the observers desperately need to be explored as does Peter. I do not mean 1 episode, I mean 10-15 episodes of answering questions. People wonder why the ratings go down so much...this is why, never giving answers.

As a huge LOST fan myself (I started watching since the very first episode and worked on several LOST blogs), I can say that FRINGE provides answers much more often than LOST ever did. They may not be the answers you like, or things may not be as important as you wanted, but many, many answers are given.

There are there certain things that can't be answered until the end, but I am confident that all of the important questions will get answered.

Joss Whedon said it best: "Movies are an answer, TV shows are a question. Because if you give a definite answer, what the hell is your next episode about?"

I (unfortunately) find myself in agreement with Amrit. I am one of the most extremist followers of fringe and probably wont stop watching it because of the faith I have in the show but will have to go through the pain of looking at it get canceled as other not so faithful viewers are surely loosing it. There are long standing arcs which do not necessary need to be resolved but atleast addressed/teased at. I believe we are at a precipice.. 408-410 will define the future of the show.

@Nikit I also will watch fringe till the end no matter what, but i too agree that 408-410 will define the future of the show in terms of ratings and in terms of quality, but i have faith that the show will go on a run of high quality episodes thanks to the tweets of ari margolis and other snippets ive read.

@AmritThe point that the writers have done a disservice to peters character throughout the run of fringe cannot be argued with. But i believe they will/must give him more time in this season. I dont think i could bear much more leeham, i think the writers made a truly tragic mistake when they made lincoln a regular. A perfect oppourtunity to give nina/broyles/astrid development, again this was put aside in favour of lincoln/olivia.

To sum up, fringe has got to come up aces in these next few episodes, and i hope it will.

IMHO Sepinwall was, and is, wrong. So there you go. Quoting critics adds no extra weight to a viewpoint.

As for stories, answers are NOT required. There is no such law that exists as to what needs to be in a story.

And, invariably, answers given are underwhelming. For serialized TV drama, watch for the characters first and accept any answers as a bonus.

I am much more interested in finding out how Peter, Olivia, and Walter handle upcoming adversities as opposed to finding out the Observers are from Dimension X and are using our universe as a culture dish for their experiments.

Saying that a show does not have to answer questions means there is no point in investing in half of it.

No one said that shows don't have to answer questions, in fact as I said before, Fringe answers questions all the time.

I suppose with shows that answer questions like breaking bad or mad men or the wire...mediocrity is hard to swallow.

Breaking Bad and Man Men do not have sci-fi mythology, so there no comparison. There are no secret bald men observing Don Draper. The only "mystery" on the show is who is Don going to have sex with next.

Fringe brings up the question of which universe has to survive and they do not bother to give an answer...awesome!

They did give an answer - they both need to survive.

They do not think they are accountable to anyone but themselves.

The writers have a plan for the show, and an end point. Let say theoretically the end point is Olivia and Peter finally end up together happily ever after, and we learn everything we want to know about the Observers. When do you want find out this information? The pilot? Season 4, Episode 8? The series finale?

The wire was based on a city of millions of residents and still managed to answer most of the questions raised. Breaking bad purposely concentrates it's scope...they could raise questions about the drug trade and law enforceforment beyond new Mexico to the entire united states...they could do character arcs on drug users. They do not do this because they know they cannot answer those questions and know they would fail if the tried based on how tv works. They respect their audience and give resolution where you know if they were cancelled answers would have given some closure.

Fringe uses questions to long con the audience....if no answers are given does that not mean that trust has been violated? Cuss, lindleoff, why man and pinkner have all been on record as saying that there is no drama in people talking or giving answers...that is the root of their mediocrity...they scared people will abandon them if they show their hand. That is clearances in some respects and it is why cable is winning with better shows that are not afraid to be abandoned and go for it.

The problem is that you are only focused on a few questions that have not been answered, and you give no credit for all the ones that have been answered. There has been soooooo many answers given throughout the show that you take them for granted. For example: Where's William Bell? How did Walternate find out about the other universe. Etc, etc, etc...

"As for stories, answers are NOT required. There is no such law that exists as to what needs to be in a story."

Of course, they are if the writers are not dishonest! It's true that there is no law that says so, and there is no law that says how you have to enjoy a show, but there is tacit understanding between a show and the audience, that if the writers are stringing the viewers along with mysteries, questions and mythology, there should be some pay-off. The problem comes when more and more questions keep being raised, but they haven't thought out the answers. Then comes the well-trodden excuse "It's about the characters!", when it should be about both characters and plot.

When they promoted S4, the question was "Where is Peter Bishop?" The producers said that was the big question right before the season started. Seven episodes in and we've had no answers or even a hint that we can expect them, although he's been back for a couple of episodes. No character development for him either. It's zero sum so far.

Answers have been given...I will admit that is true. But only a handful whereas a lot more go unanswered. I will admit that I agree with fans who are unhappy with how Peter has been treated. Each season they half ass his character. But my concern is with the balance they have settled on. You say that fringe is about multiple universes and huge out of this world mythologies...then how come the show feels so small when out of all of this they only focus on Olivia and Walter? They have repeated their stories too many times and seem stuck.

Yes we get it Walter feels guilty for all the damage he has done and for stealing Peter and all that. Did we need to hear that again in season 4 when they covered it 100 times in seasons 1-3 in great detail?

Yes I get that Olivia feels bad for being a lab rat...do we need to hear that for the hundredth time in season 4 when it has been covered so many times in seasons 1-3.

I have no problem seeing their characters if they give a fresh and new perspective....there is so much to explore and they have limited themselves (time wise) to do that. There is so much to the observers and Peter and we are just not getting that and doubt we will.

People say Friday is a death slot for shows yet blue bloods gets 10 million viewers...people will watch a show as long as the show respects it's fans.

At the time Lost finished there were questions as to whether it had damaged the medium and ruined it for shows that followed on network tv.

If people were not sure then, they should be now. Fringe has finished what Lost started and I doubt networks will be so inclined to take these types of risks again. What network would invest in a show where the ratings go to under 3 million?

Being so disdainful and dismissive of fans ruins it for others. Fringe may have just killed a part of the tv medium.

BTW, I don't believe that Friday is a death slot, in fact it is the opposite - it was the life slot for Fringe. There is much less expectation, so there is room to live with lower ratings.

Blue Bloods is again a totally different kind of show, and skews towards the 50+ crowd - who are less likely to go out Friday night. Fringe OTOH has a huge DVR following.

As far as the show repeating itself... I think a lot of what you are feeling is a result of trying too hard to bring in new viewer. I think that is a reaction to the ratings, and not the cause. There was a hard sell for S4 that there was a "reset" and that people could jump in and start watching.

I'll will admit that they haven't given us ANY answers during the last seven weeks. But I expect some awesome Fringe in only 8 days!

They are trying to attract new viewers? What a joke! That is such a massive lie, did anyone notice how the observers said in last years finale that Peter did not exist and then in the season 4 premier that changed to Peter never made it from boy to man?

Dishonesty like this is what I am talking about and trent too. Why not just admit that they thought they were going to be cancelled and have trouble figuring out what to do next or that they are struggling. That is more noble than the bs they have put on screen so far.

Well the discussion ends here, since no one will ever be able to disprove (to your satisfaction) the conspiracy that you have created that the writers are don't know what they are doing and they are liars.

'Of course, they are if the writers are not dishonest! It's true that there is no law that says so, and there is no law that says how you have to enjoy a show, but there is tacit understanding between a show and the audience that if the writers are stringing the viewers along with mysteries, questions and mythology, there should be some pay-off.'

Absolutely.

And good shows like Fringe will provide answers.

At the appropriate time. The first third of the season is not that time.

I am not saying there is a conspiracy. But critics and industry insiders believe that fringe got renewed for a full 4th season so that they could reach 88 episodes (the exact number needed for syndication). Why would a show runner come out and say that they think they can go on longer makes no sense? Financially the WB gain nothing from low balling Fringe anymore it does not make any logical or rational sense. So knowing that this bar a huge massive miracle and fringe get 10 million viewers...this is it. So for them to say we reset the story to get more viewers is futile and if it was their intention? Backfired spectacularly.

Well they are at a 1.1 so we shall see where it ends up. If it is by some good fortune renewed what will the budget be? Has anyone noticed how cheap this season looked? No Peter, no observers to speak of. We have hardly seen the other side. What is the point of renewal when the story will have to suffer tremendously.

I suppose they could create a new universe where half the cast is gone and they are stuck in one building with Walter talking about how in this universe he regrets taking Peter and Olivia is upset being a lab rat as a kid...because we so need to hear that again! And again and again... A 13 episode loop of them whining about how pathetic their lives are would be a great season 5.

lol its a new TIMELINE...seeds need to be planted...LOL AT LAZY FRINGE FANS THAT WANT ANSWERS AND DONT WANNA THINK.they know this show is going to be renewed...they know all of season 4 and 5 has been pitched to them...the bar is set low because they want 5...its a shame..children its people like you with your babyish negative views and comments that helps stop bring in viewership...thanks alot bro lol...people upset peters air-time,lol honestly these complaints are so much more about certain people not seeing exactly what they want and having hissie fits... ADULT TEENY BOPPERS VAMPIRE FANS BAH!

From a business/economic perspective ending Fringe after this season makes a lot of sense since they have reached minimum syndication numbers. Though 100+ episodes is still more attractive.

A fifth season depends on a lot of things:1) how Fox's mid-season shows fare2) what Fox decides to do with Terra Nova3) Fringe's ratings - DVR+3 numbers may provide some small positive influence4) Warner's analysis on whether or not additional seasons are worth the cost5) What kind of a financial arrangement Fox & Warner can come to.

Those are the main ones. Given Fringe's ratings to date, I would speculate renewal is about 50/50 right now. The factors listed above will swing the pendulum one way or the other.

Of course, an uptick in ratings to a consistent 1.5-1.6 on a Friday would trump everything. But, unfortunately, I do not foresee Fringe reaching or maintaining those kind of numbers.

So it will end up being a late decision. Just have to hope Fox gives enough notice for the show to end properly.

John Noble feels the show will get 5 seasons. I certainly am not going to argue with him! ;-D

I don't really understand the motivation for you beating the dead horse of your predictions of Fringe's death. This whole conversation has nothing to do with "Fringe Trailer isn't what it seems", and seems better suited to a TVByTheNumbers "cancellation bear" post :/

With that said, I don't see a reason why WB would raise the price of syndication. WB may have met the bare minimum syndication number, but more episodes is better. Plus, WB will make money off of an addition season of Fringe Blu-rays and DVDs. In TVBTN parlance, I still consider Fringe S5 a "toss up", but I don't think any decision will be made until the rest of the season plays out (we are not even half way through the season yet!)

If you are referring to these EW spoilers, then what you say makes no sense. There is nothing there that says they don't care about Josh.

In fact, here is a non-spoiler quote from the article (not some random blogger) to address you original point: "Who says Fringe is fading? If your questions are any indication, intrigue about this mind-bending series is at an all-time high."

FWIW, Josh made a movie last year between seasons. Did you ever consider the possibility that Josh is perfectly happy with his working situation? If I made as much money as he did (he is the highest paid star on Fringe), I would be perfectly fine working as little as possible. :)

I used to have an inside source for information like this. I don't have any idea how much they make per episode, but I know in the first season, both Joshua Jackson and Kirk Acevedo were making more than Anna Torv. I don't remember where John Noble fit in to that list...

Armit...I would assume that Josh has a contract that pays him for 22 episodes, whether or not he actually appears in them. It is a benefit of having your name in the main credits as a star.

If you look up the definition of MacGuffin, it says "a plot element that catches the viewers' attention or drives the plot of a work of fiction". I.E. He is the main focus of the show right now. This is not a negative.

Josh is a big enough star that he has an influence on the direction of the show - they would not be able to write him off the show like they did with Kirk Acevedo.

As for the two universe thing, just because you think that it isn't "fair" that Josh doesn't get to play two Peters doesn't mean it is a mistreatment of Josh, or he is being slighted in some way.

It comes down to how the story needs to plays out. In fact, you already said the show is too repetitive. Do you want another reset with two Peters, just so you can have more Josh screen time?

@Amrit I highly, highly doubt that, to my mind theres no way they would leave him out of play that long, and from the interviews and tweets ive read i would concur with old darth that theres a lot of peter material to come. Im sorry if you give me proper evidence of that, but i cannot take that as fact.

Peter's uniqueness of not having a double sure isn't getting media attention nor is it gaining any respect from the audience. John and Anna are getting awards for playing doubles while josh is being ignored. So not playing a double is nothing special nor award-worthy.